Women's Equality Week program at National Archives

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Posted Aug. 21, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Posted Aug. 21, 2014 at 11:00 AM

The National Archives at Kansas City will present in partnership with the American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters a program titled “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Minor?: Women’s Suffrage on the Prairie” at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 28. A 6 p.m. reception will precede the program.

This program will include a short fictional play that illustrates the experience of Mrs. Virginia Minor, a woman who attempts to register to vote and is refused because she is female. She and her husband sue the local election registrar and the case travels through the court process to the highest level, the U.S. Supreme Court.

Missouri State Rep. Judy Morgan (D) will play Virginia Minor with C.E. “Gene” Morgan playing the registrar, Mr. Reese Happersett. Former Kansas City councilwoman, Joanne Collins (R) will provide a reading of suffragist Susan B. Anthony’s appeal to women in Kansas to “vote” now that that they can exercise their voting rights in municipal elections in 1887. The conclusion of the program will include highlights of Susan B. Anthony’s last public speech Failure is Impossible.

To make a reservation for this free program, call 816-268-8010 or email kansascity.educate@nara.gov.